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HAITI/ COMMUNITY COMMITTEES
STORY: HAITI/ COMMUNITY COMMITTEES
TRT: 1.53
SOURCE: MINUSTAH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: CREOLE / NATS
DATELINE: 20 JANUARY 2010, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI
1. Wide shot, a sign reading "committee - we need help, food and water"
2. Pan left, exterior of the gated courtyard where one community committee lives
3. Med shot, people sitting, talking, and getting hair cut as seen through the gates
4. Pan left, church facade and courtyard where committee is living
5. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Fritz Jean Baptiste, Committee Member :
"We have been living like this for the last nine days."
6. Med shot, kids sitting under a tarp
7. Med shot, adults sitting under a tarp
8. Med shot, girl sitting at the only water access in the place
9. Close up, girl squeezing a rag
10. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Fritz Jean Baptiste, Committee Member:
"We organize everything in common. If I have something, I bring it and share it with the others. We put our food together, and share the meal. Maybe we all get one bite of food per day."
11. Med shot, man selling boiled manioc
12. Close up, boiled manioc
13. Med shot, boy eating a bowl of spaghetti shared by five people
14. Close up, a bowl of spaghetti shared by five people
15. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Jean Anthony, Community Committee Member:
"Today is the first time I ate something in 3 days, because I don't have any money."
16. Zoom out, people sharing electricity from a car battery to charge cell phones
17. Med shot, phone chargers
18. Wide shot, men sitting by phone chargers
19. Wide shot, Committee members approach an injured woman
20. Med shot, committee members with injured woman
21. Tilt down, injured woman
22. Pan right, wall enclosing a committee tent camp
23. Med shot, children in the committee camp - some have no parents
24. Wide shot, courtyard and gate of committee enclosure
While much of the attention has been focused on international relief efforts, community committees have been springing up all around the earthquake devastated Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.
Community committees are spontaneous neighborhood groups that band together to share resources like food, water and electricity, while also trying to locate the families of lost children, and tackle security issues.
They are usually walled off or gated to keep outsiders out.
One such group is taking refuge inside a church courtyard in Martissant, one of Port-au-Prince's most troubled neighborhoods.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Fritz Jean Baptiste, Committee Member:
"We have been living like this for the last nine days."
There are 300,000 people in this neighborhood which has been struggling with violent gang warfare since 2004. Little humanitarian aid has reached here so far and committee members are pooling resources and sharing whatever food, water or other goods they can get.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Fritz Jean Baptiste, Committee Member:
"We organize everything in common. If I have something, I bring it and share it with the others. We put our food together, and share the meal. Maybe we all get one bite of food per day."
Cash is hard to come by in Port-au-Prince after the earthquake. Not only jobs have disappeared but banks and money transfer agencies have closed for the moment, drying up remittances sent by Haitians living abroad.
Whatever money is available is pooled by committee members to buy manioc or other food items when available.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Jean Anthony, Community Committee Member:
"Today is the first time I ate something in 3 days, because I don't have any money."
At the moment, up to 435 families benefit from the Martissant committee activities.
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